Communities continue
to reach out with support

FARRAH MAFFAI Freehold High School graduate Dorothy Lawlor, a member of the class of 1929, takes her spot in Saturday's homecoming parade, which celebrated the school's 75th anniversary.

Here we go again. That’s a phrase that has been repeated many times since Sept. 11 and will be repeated many more times in the months to come.

But this is a good thing, because when we say, "Here we go again" today, we’re talking about a community reaching out to help the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 attack on America.

In recent weeks, we have reported on some of these grassroots efforts. We will continue to report this news for months to come.

In the case of the World Trade Center disaster, the victims were, and are, people we know. They are our neighbors, those who got up and traveled to New York City every day to do their jobs. They were doing nothing more than that when forces of evil launched a dastardly attack.

And we know the people they left behind, husbands, wives and children who are struggling for an answer to the question, "Why?"

We can’t presume to answer that question; we can only tell them they are not alone.

In Howell, as in other communities, residents have reached out to support the victims of our national tragedy.

Through a cooperative effort, the Howell Chamber of Commerce, Howell podiatrist Dr. Hal Ornstein and a team of volunteers went on a mission to see just how much difference a dollar could really make.

They spent a week distributing canisters all over town to local businesses in order to collect funds for the families of the victims of the World Trade Center disaster.

Hand-decorated containers were placed in more than 200 businesses.

The funds collected in these containers in a remarkably short period of time — estimated to be $12,500 — are earmarked for the American Red Cross, Jersey Coast Chapter. The funds are slated to go directly to the families of the victims of the twin towers tragedy.

Distributing more than 200 plastic containers to local businesses in such a short amount of time was an amazing feat which, according to Ornstein, was only possible because of the tireless efforts of so many people.

"Our local businesses are always there to help the community," said Ornstein, a longtime member of the chamber and a tireless booster of Howell. "People were looking for a way to help. They can’t give enough."

The Howell community learned something — it learned that $1, 12,500 times, certainly does make a difference.

The unity, patriotism and sense of community that Americans have all felt since that awful morning of Sept. 11 continue.